Moving Beyond Random Activities to Intentional Learning

In many early childhood programs, daily activities may appear fun and engaging, but they are sometimes not clearly connected to developmental goals. Children may move from one activity to another — art, play, songs, or games — without a clear framework that supports their cognitive, social-emotional, and language development.

At Capstone Preschool, we intentionally move beyond this “random activity” approach by using Experience Curriculum, a research-based early childhood curriculum designed to connect every learning experience to a child’s development.

Experience Curriculum

At Capstone Preschool, we use Experience Curriculum, a research-based early childhood education curriculum that aligns with:

• Early Learning Standards from all 50 U.S. states

• NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) educational standards

This curriculum is fully integrated into the Brightwheel platform, allowing teachers to use the curriculum in their daily teaching while sharing children’s learning experiences with parents through the platform.

Experience Curriculum covers 8 developmental domains and 73 skill indicators, and research has demonstrated strong reliability and validity.

The eight developmental domains include:

• Social & Emotional Development

• Approaches to Learning

• Physical Development

• Language & Literacy Development

• Science Exploration

• Mathematics Concepts

• Social Studies (Understanding Community and Society)

• Creative Arts and Expression

April Theme Example: Community Helpers

For example, under the April theme “Community Helpers,” the school director organizes the weekly and daily learning activities from Monday through Friday.

All activities from morning to afternoon are clearly listed in the system so teachers can easily follow the schedule and guide children through each learning experience.

Example: Firefighter Theme Learning Activities

The following example shows part of the Preschool learning activities for the first week of April (April 6).

This section focuses only on curriculum-related learning activities. Daily routines such as breakfast, outdoor play, lunch, and nap time are not included in this table, because the purpose here is to help parents clearly see how teachers support children’s development through different learning activities.

Classroom Learning Display

In the classroom learning board for the Firefighter theme, children explore the topic of “Firefighters and the Community” through a variety of learning experiences, including:

• Group discussions

• Math games

• Language activities

• Story reading

• Science exploration

• Art and creative activities

Our teachers also support bilingual communication to encourage children’s participation and curiosity.

Child Experience Communication

Through Brightwheel, our all-in-one communication platform, parents can clearly see each day:

• Which Experience Curriculum activities their child participated in

• What new concepts and skills their child learned

• How teachers supported development through activities

• Photos and learning records from the classroom

This approach makes the learning process more transparent and allows parents to better understand and participate in their child’s daily learning journey at school.